Financial markets around the world bounced back in July as International Stocks led the way after the bailout of Greece, gaining 9.3% last month. Large Cap Stocks gained 7.0% to recover almost all they lost in June. Mid Cap Stocks and Small Cap Stocks had similar returns for the month. The big winner in July was actually Real Estate as REITs picked up 9.7%.

Since investors were no longer chasing high quality US government bonds, domestic bonds only gained 1.0% in July. As investor appetite for risk increased, Emerging Market Bonds picked up 4.5% last month, while High Yield Bonds added 3.6%.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing Update August 2010 …

June was another difficult month for the stock market as a drop of -5.2% for Large Cap Stocks resulted in the SP 500 falling -11.4% in the second quarter this year. Small Cap Stocks had an even worse month, losing -7.8% in June, though they ‘ONLY’ lost -9.9% for the quarter. The pressure from the European financial crisis has started to subside, helping International Stocks fare considerably better this month, losing only -1.3%, but that still left them with a -12.5% drop for the quarter.

A ‘flight to quality’ proved to be the theme this quarter with high quality government and corporate bonds adding 3.5% for the quarter. TIPS were up slightly more, returning 3.8% over the last three months. REITs were not hurt as bad as other equities, dropping only -5.2% this quarter, lowering their gain for the first half of 2010 to a surprising 5.7%, even better than the 5.3% return for bonds so far this year.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing Newsletter July 2010 …

The old adage ‘Sell in May and Go Away’ proved to be the right move this year as the SP 500 dropped 8% in May. Thanks once again to the financial crisis in Europe, International Stocks were hit with the double whammy of poor performance and a stronger dollar to end the month down 11%. The rapid rise in recent months finally caught up with Real Estate too, as those funds lost more than 5%.

The ‘flight to quality’ provided a real boost to US Government Bonds, with Intermediate Government Bonds up almost 2% and Long Term Bond funds jumping more than 6%. This did not help corporate bonds as investment grade debt did little more than break even, while High Yield paper lost almost 4%.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing News June 2010 …

It was a relatively quite April for the financial markets with Large Cap stocks up 1.6% and Bonds up 2.8%. Leading the pack once again was Real Estate, which gained 7% in the first month of the second quarter. The market favored Small Cap Value Equities this month with those stocks also picking up 7% for the month. Large Cap Growth stocks, on the other hand, only picked up 1.2% in April as the market once again that it is far less correlated in a bull phase than it is in a bear market.

The only category that was not on the plus side of the score board this month was International stocks which fell 1.7%, thanks mostly to financial crisis in Greece. European stocks were hit with the double whammy of poor performance and a stronger dollar.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing News May 2010 …

A strong March turned what looked to be a market correction into the fourth positive quarter in a row for stocks, in spite of the possibility of financial collapse in Greece. Leading the charge was Real Estate and Small Cap Value funds, both picking up just over 10%. A gain of 7% for Value funds topped the 5% return for Growth funds mostly because they held up better back in January. Small Cap stocks with an 8.9% return were considerably stronger than Large Cap stocks which returned 5.4% for the quarter.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing Newsletter April 2010 …

On a monthly basis, it has been a year since the bottom of the financial market crisis. The one year performance numbers for stocks look incredibly good, just the opposite of how horribly bad they looked one year ago. It only too one year for the financial markets to demonstrate the pendulum effect of market cycles. That being said, your portfolio should be close to its asset allocation targets at this time. Stocks bounced back in February to bring most categories back to or slightly better than break even for the year. Leading the pack was Real Estate, which gained just about all it lost last month by picking up 5.5%. US stocks benefited this month by a flight to quality that lifted the dollar. This action helped push up domestic stock funds, with a 5% gain by Mid Cap Stocks leading the pack for equities.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing Newsletter March 2010 Update …

After a nice finish to 2009, and a strong opening week to the new decade, stocks headed south to have their worst month since October. A slowing economy in China and financial problems in Spain and Greece hurt stock markets around the world. Just as they did when the financial crisis started in 2008, investors chased US Treasury Bonds in a flight to safety.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing News February 2010 …

What started out looking like the world was coming to an end turned out to be a pretty good year for the stock market. In fact, by the numbers it was a fantastic year. The only sign of a negative number was last year’s shining star Managed Futures, which were down a couple of percent, and Long Term Bonds, which you should not have had in your portfolio anyway.

Continue reading the Insightful Investing Newsletter January 2010 …